Jewel perfectly clear album6/12/2023 And, yes, she gets her chance to use her legendary yodeling skills for “Loved By You (Cowboy Waltz).” Still not a complete country girl, but she’s on the range. Jewel’s strengths have always been her melodies and her irony-free sincerity. “Love is A Garden,” Two Become One,” and “Anyone But You” settle in for soft-rock with pianos leading Jewel down the contemplative path of pleasant love song platitudes. “Stronger Woman” delivers a self-empowerment anthem that’s one electric guitar shy of pop-rock. “I Do” would be a straight-forward pop tune if not for its slide guitar solo. Jewel tilts her delivery slightly towards country music inflections, but it’s mostly the back-up singers, the interjected instrumental hooks and the overall pacing of the tunes that signify country. Rich adds slide guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin to Jewel’s usual arsenal of acoustic guitar and piano. Actually, it isn’t a transition so much as a matter of instrument choices. But one thing’s for sure: Rivers Cuomo needs to ditch that moustache.Teaming up with producer John Rich of Big and Rich for her first foray into country music, modern day adult-contemporary folksinger Jewel easily makes the transition. This time out, Jewel embraces country music, a choice that reflects the time the singer-songwriter spent in Nashville prior to recording the album. The first single is called “Pork and Beans,” the opening line of which is, “They say I need some Rogaine to put in my hair.” (Video below.) We’ll let you decide for yourself. What was up with that “Beverly Hills” song they did a few years back? Cringe much? But alas, the lovable power pop boys are back at it with a new album in stores today, (a self-titled release known as “The Red Album”) whose title and cover art give a nod to their 1994 debut, (a self-titled release known as “The Blue Album”). IT’S SAD TO say, but Weezer probably should have called it quits after 1996’s Pinkerton. Jewel contributes bland pickup-truck philosophy about relationships in cutesy little-girl vocals that rarely show off her voice’s texture (though, yes, there’s some yodeling) … Jewel, prepare to be zinged again. But the album’s biggest setback, other than the fact that its title sounds like a Neutrogena product, is that Jewel doesn’t call upon the gritty storytelling of a real Nashville star … he album is overcrowded by placid soft-rock tunes … with schmaltzy choruses and flavorless piano-laden verses. Perfectly Clear CD Track List:Stronger WomanI DoLove Is a GardenRosey And MickAnyone But YouThump ThumpTwo Become OneTill It Feels Like CheatingEverything. So Perfectly Clear, her first proper country record, should have been her true calling to an art that’s one part twang to two parts self-mythology. went on to sell 12 million copies of her debut, only to become the butt of countless zingers. Or has it? Yes, Jewel has a new album out today called Perfectly Clear, which is being billed as the singer-songwriter’s first foray in country music (her dad was a cowboy, after all), and it’s supposedly a little more Nashville twang than “Who Will Save Your Soul?” But not so fast-this doesn’t mean Jewel actually made a good album. Her career has been reduced to ironic snippets on VH1’s I Love the 90’s. What can we say about Jewel? She’s blonde. Is that a droned out cover of “When You Were Mine” we hear? Well, one can dream!ĪH, JEWEL. 8 and 9 in Jersey City, N.J, they’re headlining the inaugural All Points West festival, the east coast version of Coachella. All three songs are on the new Radiohead Best Of, a two-disc collection that compiles 29 songs from the band’s seven releases, and which comes out tody just in time for Radiohead’s extensive summer tour. “Creep?” “Fake Plastic Trees?” “The Bends?” Hell. (Best headline goes to Stereogum for, “ Prince Is Being A ‘Creep,’ Radiohead Tell Him He’s A Loser.”) But the brouhaha also served a more useful purpose by reminding us how friggin’ good early Radiohead was. Yorke added: “Well, tell him to unblock it.
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